Bill > S524

Introduced Session

This bill requires a public school operated by a local or regional school district of the State in which five percent or more of the students enrolled in the school on or before the last school day before October 16 of the preceding school year were eligible for free or reduced price meals under the federal School Lunch Program or the federal School Breakfast Program to establish a school breakfast program in the school. Under existing State statutes, a school with five percent or more of such eligible students must have a school lunch program; however a school is only required to have a school breakfast program if it has 20 percent or more of such eligible students. The new requirements established by the bill are modeled on the State's existing breakfast program planning and implementation requirements. Specifically, the bill would provide for a school breakfast program to be implemented, by September 1, 2023, in covered schools that provide instruction in Kindergarten through sixth grades, and by September 1, 2024, in covered schools that provide instruction in other grades. An initial program plan for each school is to be submitted to the Department of Agriculture for approval. If a school district fails to submit a plan by the date specified in the bill, the school district will be required to establish a school breakfast program, in each covered school, based on a model plan provided by the department. The bill would authorize a school district to seek and obtain, from the Department of Agriculture, a one-year waiver of the bill's requirements in certain cases. The bill would additionally provide for the State to annually appropriate necessary funds, to the Department of Agriculture, to finance the State's share of costs for the school breakfast programs being established under the bill.

AI Summary

Committee Categories

Jim Beach (D)*,  Vin Gopal (D)*, 

Introduced in the Senate, Referred to Senate Education Committee (on 01/13/2026)

Official Document